


And the Winter Breaks

by Daphnean



Series: My EXO Challenge [5]
Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-09
Updated: 2015-07-09
Packaged: 2018-08-16 17:11:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8110675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daphnean/pseuds/Daphnean
Summary: "Body heat is good in these sorts situations." He tried to keep his tone light. "And I promise not to tell Chanyeol."





	

After curling up in the blankets didn’t seem to make him any warmer, Joonmyun finally conceded to opening his eyes, greeted only by the darkness in his room. Slithering his hand out from under the comforter, he grabbed his phone only to be bombarded with messages and the sting of the bright screen. Several were the university’s messaging system warning of a winter storm, finally ending in an announcement that they hoped to get the power fixed soon.

Joonmyun groaned softly, closing his eyes as he digested the information. No wonder he was freezing. There were a couple of messages of concern from his parents, and he wondered how his father was even aware of the weather seeing as the two of them were in Thailand and beyond a birthday card, were hardly a blip in his life most days.

Before he could check on the other messages there was a knock on his door and Joonmyun sat up, only to immediately swear and wrap the blankets around him more firmly. This time he was more cautious, eyes still a little disoriented from sleep and the bright of his screen made his vision off as he trudged forward. He nearly tripped over some of his clothes and Chanyeol’s desk chair, but finally he made it to the door, opening it to see Kyungsoo’s face illuminated by his cell phone flashlight. He was in an oversized hoodie that was likely black, not that the color mattered much with the power out.

“Hyung?” Kyungsoo’s voice was low, a little rough from sleep or the chill. “Did I wake you?”

Joonmyun wanted to run a hand through his hair, his natural response to stress, but it was too cold for him to take his hand from out of his blanket cocoon. “No, the cold did. How much did it snow?”

“Not just snow, but ice.” Kyungsoo shivered, pulling the blanket around his shoulders closer. “The living room is warmer. I put out some blankets and thought I might…see if you wanted to come out too.”

The gesture was so considerate. Kyungsoo was very private, Joonmyun knew this well. Even with Chanyeol’s wrecking ball personality and Joonmyun’s friendly charm, the younger man had managed to stay a mystery to them both. Of all of the roommates in the K-Boys (Chanyeol named it) Dorm, quiet Minseok seemed to know him best. Apparently he was good friends with Minseok’s younger sister, which helped immensely. Minseok was insistent that Kyungsoo was really funny and sweet, but that he just was insanely private and introverted. Perhaps the severity of the weather had changed his mind, or maybe it was just desperation.

“I have a few more blankets too, hang on.” Joonmyun nodded, using his cell phone’s flashlight as well, wanting to be quick as not to waste the power. He took some of his blankets and headed into the living room, where in the light from a small emergency lantern, he could see that Kyungsoo had made a large pallet out of blankets on the floor, moving their single coffee table to the side of the room. It was only about the size of queen sized bed, their bed space, but it would prove warmer than either of rooms, especially if they shared a blanket.

Joonmyun wanted to berate his own thoughts, which had gone into elaborate fantasy at sharing a bed with Kyungsoo. The lack of conversations between them hadn’t doused his attraction to the younger man. Maybe it was how Kyungsoo softly sang songs in Korean as he made chocolate chip cookies while the others played video games on the couch, or how he straightened Chanyeol’s collar before he went out on dates with Soojung even if he acted as though he hated his taller roommate. Little things made Joonmyun like him so much, want to know him so much better. With the only things they could do during the storm involving sleeping, eating, and talking, maybe this was the chance he’d been looking for.

It was then it clicked that likely he had nothing he could actually eat easily. Maybe he had a few packages of ramen he could eat dry, but Joonmyun lived mostly on takeout and that was out of the question with the current weather.

Groaning, he flopped onto the pallet, ruining what was likely Kyungsoo’s immaculate handiwork. “I’ll likely starve before the power returns. I didn’t even think to actually buy anything for this situation.”

“Then you’re lucky I’m here.” Kyungsoo nodded to the coffee table, covered in boxes of granola bars, peanut butter, and a loaf of bread among other staple foods. “I went yesterday while you slept in.”

“Bless you, Do Kyungsoo.” Joonmyun turned his head and looked at the smaller man, who was sliding beneath the blankets.

Kyungsoo rolled his eyes, but his lip quirked briefly with amusement. “One of us has to be an adult in this situation, hyung.”

The comment was playful, distracting him from the cold, and the fact that just a few layers of fabric away was Kyungsoo’s thigh. At this point, Joonmyun was sure that he was hormonally back in high school, where one look at Wu Yifan had made him weak in the knees.

It was still so cold, too cold, and he made sure to pull the blankets around him snugly. He could hear the wind outside clawing at the doors and windows, feel Kyungsoo trying to curl up as small as he was able in the mass of blankets around him. Joonmyun tried to sleep.

While he didn’t check his phone to save battery, Joonmyun felt as though not a lot of time had passed by the time he woke from the cold again. The blankets above him trembled and he shifted, turning his head to see Kyungsoo curled up as tightly he was able. The faint light of the lantern caught the inky blackness of his hair, the downturn of his pale lips.

Joonmyun felt as if he’d swallowed a golf ball, the sight of his roommate like this making his chest just ache.

Turning to his side to face him, Joonmyun reached over beneath the blankets to touch his shoulder. “Kyungsoo?”

The younger looked exhausted as he finally opened his eyes, swallowing before he spoke, “Hyung?”

Joonmyun wanted to ask if body heat, a good cuddle, would help. But despite being charming, often he wasn’t so eloquent. Mentally hoping he wouldn’t get put into a chokehold for this later, he pulled the slightly smaller man into his arms.

While he’d never tell Kyungsoo, the other man had let out the most adorable sort of squeak at the action, eyes almost unnaturally wide as he let himself be tugged closer, and their noses bumping. Joonmyun pointedly ignored the spike in his heart rate and instead rubbed circles on the younger’s back.

“Body heat is good in these sorts of situations.” He tried to keep his tone light. “And I promise not to tell Chanyeol.”

The humor must have relaxed him, because he could feel some of the tension in Kyungsoo fall away. “He’ll start thinking he can spoon me and shit like that. He already doesn’t get the idea of personal space as it is.”

“Mmm.” Joonmyun chuckled, wondering if Kyungsoo could feel the vibrations with their closeness and hoping talking would relax them both, “He was like that even in high school.”

“You’ve known him for that long? Even though he’s younger than you?” Kyungsoo didn’t seem to know what to do with his hands and arms, finally resting them between them, fists loosely curled.

Joonmyun thought back to fifteen year old Chanyeol with his poorly dyed red hair and glasses. “In our high school, there were only four or five Korean students so we all sort of stuck together. He was also best friends with my younger brother, Jongin. He and Jongin would usually just barge into my room when I was doing homework and drag me off to do something stupid like go camping or spend way too much money at the arcades.”

“Your brother goes somewhere else for dance.” Kyungsoo had closed his eyes. “Right?”

“Chanyeol said he was a traitor, at first, seeing as he had plans to come here like I did. But I always knew Jonginie was going to follow his dreams and go somewhere else.” Joonmyun didn’t know where all this exposition into his life was coming from, but Kyungsoo seemed to be calmed by it, so he didn’t stop. “He’s doing really well there, in New York, dating fellow dancers and performing recitals.”

For a moment, with his steady breathing, Joonmyun wondered if Kyungsoo had fallen asleep, but eventually he responded, shifting slightly in Joonmyun’s hold, “Having a passion like that is impossible to ignore. You get hungry for more knowledge in your field, clinging to every new thought or idea that could make your skills sharper. It feels like someone is constantly pushing at your shoulders like you are moving too slowly towards the front of a line. At least…that is what it feels like to me.”

Joonmyun wasn’t really that driven towards his major in advertising, but he was good at it. And he liked his field even if it wasn’t some sort of dream he aspired to when he was small. Not all people had the sort of passion Kyungsoo and Jongin had, he supposed.

“You’re a theatre major.” Joonmyun had an excellent memory, could remember the very first day when Kyungsoo showed up with his three duffels of belongings and bowed to each of his new roommates as he introduced himself, one of his habits he said he'd kept even with growing up in the states like the rest of them.

“I am.” Kyungsoo’s breath warmed his chin, slightly smelling of peanut butter. “I love being able…”

The younger male didn’t talk that much, trailing off uncomfortably, so Joonmyun tried to bolster the conversation more. “Tell me. About what it is like. Jongin used to spend hours talking about dancing, showing me moves. It was like he couldn’t hold it in. His leg would jiggle beneath the table at dinner until he could start talking about his dance classes after school.”

“I don’t know if I get that…pent up, about it.” Kyungsoo brought a hand up to scratch at his hair briefly. “But I love slipping into someone else’s head for a moment. I get to tell stories with every gesture, with each line. I’ve always loved a good novel, but I am not so great at creating in that way. In class, when I was fourteen, I was asked to read as Tom in The Glass Menagerie. Reading his final soliloquy…I remember the class was silent, a rare thing for a bunch of teens. I remember how I shaped how people spoke about his character in class discussions afterwards. My teacher had come up to me and told me how beautifully I had delivered his lines. She asked me to join the theatre club after school…and that’s where it all began, for me.”

Joonmyun had always wondered about Kyungsoo being a part of the theatre program. Through his friend Siwon, he’d met a lot of theatre majors, but they all seemed more characters than people, eccentric and wild, but he supposed Kyungsoo would make a better canvas. With his personality kept so closely guarded, no one could meet him and assume anything, typecast him into a stereotype for anything unless they were biased by his appearance.

Kyungsoo had never talked so much, maybe it was the lack of sleep or cold, but Joonmyun found even as he was still exhausted, he was enjoying himself. Kyungsoo had an easy way of speaking, fluid and soft, that made him want to pay attention.

“I just was good at coming up with jingles for things, for the school radio show.” Joonmyun shrugged. “I got a wonderful scholarship along with my parent’s support. Mine may not be a story to turn into a movie, but I find more enjoyment out of other things beside my future career.”

Kyungsoo chuckled. “Like manga and takeout?”

“How else should I spend our winter break?” Joonmyun grinned, nudging him under the blankets. “Next you’ll be telling me things like do laundry and clean my side of the room.”

Shaking his head, Kyungsoo yawned. “It’d take you all break and then Chanyeol would come back and wreck it all again.”

“At least I don’t have to room with Minseok again. I swore he was going to start following me around with that mini vac of his.” Joonmyun could remember the smaller man’s arsenal of swiffer products and his eye for even the slightest crease in his comforter. Somehow he felt Kyungsoo was likely just as detail-oriented and so the roommate situation was likely much less tense this year.

Kyungsoo’s breathing was even slower, deeper. After a few moments longer of silence, Joonmyun realized he was asleep. It was likely the creepiest thing he’d done in a while, but he watched the smaller man. Slowly he brushed some of the hair from his forehead, listening to the winds outside of their dorm sing them both back into sleep.

\--

The next morning Kyungsoo made them peanut butter sandwiches with granola bars on the side. They sat shoulder to shoulder, leaning against the coffee table as they ate in relative silence. It wasn’t uncomfortable, at least. Joonmyun eventually ended up humming a theme song from an anime he watched in high school as Kyungsoo went to the bathroom.

Joonmyun ended up going to do the same a few minutes later, grabbing some manga to read now that the sun had come up enough to give the room a small bit of light even with all the cloud cover. Kyungsoo had a novel and the two were curled up on their stomachs as they read, thighs brushing and blanket over them both as they did their best to keep warm. At least the snow and ice had stopped.

“Kyungsoo.” even if he wasn’t as bad as Chanyeol, the eerie silence of no heater, no talking, and now no noise outside left him feeling a strange sort of unease.

Looking up from his book, Kyungsoo placed his bookmark along the spine and closed it. “Hmm?”

“Why did you stay over break?” He hadn’t really planned on a topic, so he let his brain just thrust words onto his tongue. But as he watched the other man’s shoulders curl inwards, his fingers tighten uneasily on his book, he wondered if he’d perhaps picked a bad topic to broach on.

There was a beat of uncomfortable quiet, then two more. It stretched too thin and Joonmyun swore he felt the air in the room disappear.

“I couldn’t afford to.” He finally looked at Joonmyun and there were so many questions in those dark eyes, accusations. The next words that Kyungsoo heard were going to dictate his response and likely his disposition towards him for however long they were stuck camping out in this living room, maybe even longer.

Joonmyun licked his lower lip and nodded. “I can’t say I understand…I’m one of those horrifyingly wealthy kids, you know. But…I’m sorry you couldn’t make it home. I know you likely wouldn’t have accepted it, but we all would have chipped in to help.”

Kyungsoo’s shoulders eased the smallest fraction. “I know you all wouldn’t have asked me to pay you back, but I would have wanted to…and I wouldn’t be able to. I’m not starving or anything. I did buy this food for us, just…plane tickets are expensive and I already have to fly back at the end of the year. I’m not ashamed I’m a scholarship kid. I worked hard and was rewarded, that’s how the system is ideally supposed to work. Sometimes I just wish it was a little closer to home.”

“If it is any consolation, I’m glad you’re here…I’d have been awfully lonely by myself.” Joonmyun nudged their shoulders, giving the other a too wide smile.

Kyungsoo shoved him away slightly, smirking. “More like would have starved to death or gotten buried in takeout boxes. Do you even know how trash cans work, Richie Rich?”

Joonmyun laughed, then hissed as it was cold and scurried back closer to Kyungsoo. “They’d better fix this power soon.”

With a chuckle, Kyungsoo pulled him closer, rubbing his shoulder that had been exposed to the chill of the room. Joonmyun felt warmer just at the gesture alone and was glad Chanyeol wasn’t here to laugh at what was likely the dopiest look on his face.

“So tell me a bit about the manga you’ve been so hung up on?” Kyungsoo seemed to be trying to distract him. Joonmyun hoped he knew what he was getting into.

Showing the cover to the younger man, he pointed to the main protagonist. “So you see it all begins…”

\--

The power still wasn’t on that night, and even with them both talking and dozing on and off for hours, it was at the point they were both irritable and on edge. Kyungsoo hadn’t even protested when Joonmyun pulled him into his arms, only huffing a bit like an upset kitten. The comparison was horribly accurate, but Joonmyun liked his internal organs remaining inside him enough to not bring it up to his roommate. Somehow he felt Kyungsoo wouldn’t find it as funny.

Unfortunately, when unsure of what to say, Joonmyun’s brain usually picked the absolute worst topic to touch on. Whether it something uncomfortable like the one commercial he did in high school where he had sang a song about reindeer poop brownies for the school bake sale or the time his braces had got caught in Yifan’s when they kissed on their second date, Joonmyun knew how to make any conversation awkward.

He was currently curled up with his younger roommate who was only making his crush on him worse every day, and the words out of his mouth were, “This would be the perfect scenario if we were dating.”

Inserting his foot into his mouth didn’t seem to be a strong enough gesture. Maybe ripping his vocal cords out and throwing them into the snow would be a better idea.

Instead of getting a pinch, Kyungsoo merely snorted. “Would you use that cheesy line of warming us up?”

“No, I’d likely just start…” And this is where Joonmyun’s imagination decided that lack of sleep needed to give him a vivid vision of him kissing and sucking along Kyungsoo’s pretty neck, completely cutting off all the blood to the parts of his brain that made words form. Suddenly it was time for boner control and steady breathing.

“Hyung?” Kyungsoo looked up at him, brows furrowed in an expression that always looked far more intense than he was sure the younger intended.

Joonmyun eloquently replied with a strained chuckle. “I’m sorry. I…words aren’t really working right now.”

Kyungsoo’s expression shifted to the raising of a brow. “Right. If you’re uncomfortable with the topic you only have yourself to blame. You brought it up.”

“I did and I regret everything.” He felt like wheezing as Kyungsoo’s thigh slid between his legs. At this point he was sure the cold was causing him to hallucinate.

There seemed to be a struggle going on, if Kyungsoo’s expressions were any indication. Suddenly the younger was shifting and was wearing a rare look that was almost…shy.

“Kyungsoo?” Joonmyun’s mother bird instincts were usually mocked, but he really couldn’t help them. His roommate was behaving strangely and his knee-jerk reaction was to coo and coddle and fix it no matter what it took.

The younger met his gaze again, but his eyes were difficult to read. “Chanyeol told me once that he thought you liked me.”

That was certainly not what Joonmyun expected as a response and he felt his emotions and thoughts all whir to life like a fire alarm, loud and blaring like a buzzing in his head. How did he react or respond to this? Kyungsoo hadn’t even indicated how he felt about this in his tone. Joonmyun was so taken aback that he only opened his mouth a few times wordlessly, closing it each time once words didn’t seem to come out.

“I wondered why,” Kyungsoo continued, watching him now with what seemed like amusement. “Because we never really talked, but…if you did, I don’t think I’d mind having dinner with you, some time. Or you know “warming up” while we try not to freeze our asses off in here.”

Joonmyun felt like Kyungsoo had to hear the sirens going off in his head, they were so loud. The younger’s brutal sort of honesty was really very admirable, but it was something that Joonmyun was really unused to. Chanyeol was blunt, yes, but with Kyungsoo it was more matter of fact or laying things out in a way that felt more exposing.

“I do.” Joonmyun finally found his voice from wherever it had gotten lost in his head. “Have a crush on you as juvenile as that sounds. And this whole damn thing has only made it worse. I had this vision of kissing you and my brain kind of threw up a white flag at that.”

“You do look like you might throw up, actually.” Kyungsoo shifted closer. “So you don’t want to kiss me?”

Playful was a word he’d have to use to describe Kyungsoo from now on. Sultry was another adjective for his voice. That was permission and Joonmyun was not going to ignore it.

The contrast between the cold of the air around them and Kyungsoo’s hot mouth were so absolutely perfect that Joonmyun felt he could start writing poetry about it. He’d always wondered how those plush lips would feel against his own, teeth grazing over them as he sucked on his lower lip with a muffled groan.

While it was still cold, Joonmyun was lost in their kiss. There was an art to the first makeout session, discovering how aggressive your partner was, how much tongue they used, what sort of noises they made as they kissed in return. Kyungsoo was an aggressor, took the lead as if this was a dance, all teeth and tongue and soft little noises as he slid his hands up Joonmyun’s chest.

With a push, Joonmyun was on his back, Kyungsoo’s thick thighs straddling his own. He was given a moment to catch his breath as Kyungsoo swore from the sudden cold, tugging the blanket over them more affectively in their new position. Joonmyun curled his hand around Kyungsoo’s neck and brought him back down in for another kiss, thoughts foggy for a brief moment until the younger pulled back, slightly breathless. In the lantern light, Joonmyun could see the way his hair was mussed, his lips kiss-swollen and stark against the pale of his skin.

“We probably.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I know I kind of pushed you and all, but…I do not want sticky and cold boxers. I also don’t want to have to get naked and try and change again later when we inevitably mess them up. This also is a little fast, you know.”

It was so logical when just two seconds ago they were kissing that Joonmyun laughed, bright and a little too loudly. “I never thought you’d be a nervous babbler.”

Kyungsoo leaned down and bit his lip in warning. “Tell anyone and I’ll break every last one of your ribs.”

“Why would I do that when I could hold it over your head as blackmail for more kisses?” Joonmyun slipped his arms around his waist, effectively keeping them close, Kyungsoo resting on his chest.

Kyungsoo settled in, cuddling a bit against his jaw, breathing still a bit quick from before. “No one would believe you anyways.”

“You’re right.” Joonmyun traced circles along Kyungsoo’s back, wondering if he could feel them through all the layers of clothing. “Should our first date be to somewhere warm, then?”

“On the couch, under a pile of blankets, including the electric one. I’ll make dinner and you’ll keep Chanyeol out of the dorm.” Kyungsoo lifted his head to look at him, expression the sort of soft that Joonmyun could find himself getting addicted to.

“I’ll help you with dinner and we’ll lock Chanyeol up in the bathroom.” Joonmyun kissed his chin.

Kyungsoo shifted and brought their lips together once more. “That will do.”

**Author's Note:**

> EXO and all other Kpop entertainers presented here are real people and so I remind you that this is just a fic, like a play with their stage personas as the actors. This is not intended to be a representation of who these men and women are or are not. Remember to love and respect them always. And thanks for reading! <3


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